Written reviews on hair pomades by Bertold Roux

Shear revival grooming & beauty, Easy tiger – firm oil based pomade

Company – product

A little behind the scenes of this infamous grooming company: ‘Shear revival started in a small kitchen in Asbury Park, NJ in late 2013. Founder Zachary West, is a barber by trade. After not being satisfied with what the men’s grooming market had to offer, he set out to create a line of products that work with ingredients that you can pronounce. Over the years Shear Revival has successfully developed eight grooming & beauty products, with new additions to come in 2017. Having a strong DIY ethic, every product is handmade in small batches by Zach and his wife Jessica, to achieve the highest quality product for you. We are dedicated to creating safe, healthy, and nourishing products for both men and women to use every day.’

Famous Shear revival pomades: the medium unorthodox water based Crystal lake and the medium oil based ‘The one who knocks’ (TOWK). Other ones: a light hold (Elm street), a heavy hold (Music or misery) and a medium-light styling clay (American gardens).

‘Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot …’. Zach wanted to fill the gap between the medium and heavy and Easy tiger was the answer. Quoting: ‘Easy tiger firm hold pomade brings a beautiful semi-matte finish and a strong hold with the ease of use for everyday styling. Fortified with shea butter, castor, avocado, and jojoba oils, it not only keeps your style in place all day long, but works to condition and revitalize your hair.’ Zach continued his way in which he replaced the classic petroleum derived petrolatum by castor wax (hydrogenated castor oil) to offer cleaner pomades.

Extra info:

The latest run got new labeling: metallic with a shiny finish: beautiful, clean, classy and professional!

Easy tiger is wax based (hydrogenated castor oil = castor wax). Looking at the first 3 ingredients predicts it’s gonna be on the high waxy side.

Scent

Notes of citrus, lavender and cypress. My nose catches the citrus flavor the most. In the jar: fresh, tart, clean, accessible. Reminds me of the O’Douds water based. I like it. Once it is in the hair: more subtle, nicely balanced citrus aroma, nothing overbearing. Pleasurable, non-pushy breezes throughout the day. Scent evaporated.

Application process – result

Application on a damp mop to control my waves better plus styles easier as it has a firm strength with much wax. Scooping out: one good push and there it is. Rubbing between the hands: waxy, dry texture that breaks down toilless, a few good rubs and done. No greasiness. Did use 3 average licks as I usual do. Putting in: tug and pull, grippy, therefore not facile to spread. Slicking back and changing the hair’s direction to part: again tug and pull employing my Denman brush. Then my beloved brush, the tangle teezer came in, resulting in a lot less resistance now. Styling process: not smooth, discomfort from the tug and pull due to its high wax content. Control wise: good control. It kept the hairs down. Sides were slicked down well. Waves were straightened out well. Cowlick area stayed down nearly from the start because of the pomade’s sticky aspect. Waxy pomades allow loose hairs to show up but with this one, that wasn’t the case. There’s a balanced amount of oils and butter to avoid those issues. Weight in my hair: light-medium. Wanted to lift my front but that was not possible at once, did not have much of a volume at first but okay after some tweaking. Obtained some average height with a clean, slick outlook. It took me more time to style than usual. Post-styling: experienced no pain after all the tug but I noticed I had styled my hair. The whole was intact looking back after 30 minutes.

Shine

Semi-matte finish after Zachary. This is accurate. Shine the same all day long.

Hold – endurance

Labeled as a strong/firm hold. To me: definitely a firm. This pomade is a good midway between the medium TOWK and heavy MOM pomade. Provides great hold and great endurance under circumstances as a solid walk, some wind, a weak sun with temperatures in the 50s. A great pomade for a hot summer most certainly. End of the day: no saggy hair, a few minor flyaways, no splits, still a great shape! Being honest and with all due respect for the brewer: styling wise, it’s too waxy for my hair and I don’t love much pull. But, in terms of the achieved results, satisfied for sure. If you are into waxy pomades, Easy tiger is one to get! Another opinion comes from James Bui aka The pomp. I watched his review several times and he did not experience the same as me, it really worked out well for him. The type of hair plays its role for certain. I’ll provide you with the link to his review – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79qUlZi1i6Y&t=502s

Restyling

Restyled the front of my hair do after my hair had settled and it was much easier to get proper volume and a much neater shape. Rest of the day: no need to restyle. Testing it out: restyling without tension for the pomade had softened up = that helped a lot! Kept its firm hold mode.

Build up

Clean, waxy, more comfortable to work with on day 2: styled with damper hair plus more tonic on top, 2 small licks added. Took me a while to get styled. For me, this is a pomade I would use on day 1. On day 2, I would insert a medium: enough hold and easier/more comfortable to style with.

Washing out

Around 4 washes with shampoo, normal case for a wax heavy pomade. Of course, this all depends on your type of hair, how much pomade there was in, what shampoo and how much of it, scrub intensity. Once it was dry, my mane felt soft and conditioned as promised by the brewer.